Reference Material

Resources for Employee Wellness

The Association offers several resources to help members enhance existing employee wellness programs and measure their impact. These include our own database system, known as CHART, as well as access to collaborative relationships with external products.

CHART

The Association currently has 15 children’s hospitals in its Claims and Health Analytic Resource Tool (CHART). The CHART database contains medical and pharmacy claims for the employees, spouses and dependents of these hospitals. This data is updated monthly and used to identify high cost patients, create cost and utilization reports, and analyze wellness and disease management programs.

How do hospitals use this data?

Biometric data was used for one hospital to identify employees with high cholesterol, blood pressure and/or glucose levels. Claims data was used to see if any medications were being used to treat these conditions. Only 56% of employees with Stage II Hypertension were on a blood pressure medication.

Lab values for the members of one CHART hospital are now being captured as well. This type of information provides additional value when looking at chronic diseases. Traditional claims level data can show that a diabetic member is getting their A1C test as required. The lab values can show if those levels are getting better or worse.

Wellness/Disease Management Company

The Association currently has an agreement with one wellness/disease management companies: Staywell. It offers health coaching, biometric screenings and targeted wellness programs. Data from Staywell can be linked into the CHART claims database to track changes in utilization, drug adherence, as well as overall health risk.

In addition to Staywell, many CHART hospitals work with other outside wellness vendors, as well as their own internal programs. Data from Staywell can also be integrated with the claims data to help identify changes in behavior. For example, participants in a hospital’s internal diabetes management program were tracked over a three year period. Their claims data showed their health was improving when compared to diabetics not in the program.

As hospitals continue to allocate resources to improving employee health, there is a greater interest in trying to measure the effectiveness of these efforts. The ability to link medical and pharmacy claims into various wellness programs can help identify the best methods to reach out to employees and their families.